Hollywood Week: Bob Iger Sends Out Positive Signals, Emmys Pushed, Box Office, Robbie Robertson
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- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Saturday, 12 August 2023 13:51
- Written by Janet Walker
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, who has emerged as the taunting goliath hurling unrealistic messages at the striking SAG/AFTRA and WGA Unions, announced during the earnings call his "desire to quickly find solutions to the issues."
"It is my fervent hope that we quickly find solutions to the issues that have kept us apart these past few months," Bob Iger said Wednesday on Disney's Q3 earnings call about the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strike. "And I am personally committed to working to achieve this result," reported Deadline.
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As the unions have remained steadfast in their determined effort to obtain more concrete job security, greater share of streaming residuals, and improved working conditions. Pay increases, which are inclusive of any union negotiation, are also imperative to the SAG/AFTRA and WGA strikers.
Before the unions voted to strike, Iger, whose comments, spoken during an CNBC interview, have also highlighted the importance of guarding one's words, stated the union demands were "unrealistic" and "disruptive."
As studios are still adjusting to a post-pandemic world, where the box office misses more times than it hits, the strike will generate additional losses with current estimates hovering around $3billion over the last 100 days and the industry is expected to lose $1billion for each additional month the strike continues.
The next weeks will be critical in determining whether the strike continues into the fall. The AMPTP are meeting with WGA negotiators again in the next week.
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Emmys Pushed to January
The Primetime Emmy Awards 75th Anniversary telecast, usually held in September has been moved to Martin Luther King, Jr Day, January 2024, in the hopes that the SAG/AFTRA and WGA strikes will be over by then allowing talent to attend the event.
"As the Emmy Awards celebrates its 75th Anniversary, the show will broadcast live on FOX coast-to-coast from the Peacock Theater at LA Live and will honor the talented performers, writers, directors and craftspeople whose work has entertained, inspired and connected viewers across the globe throughout the past year," the Fox press release stated," CNN reported.
No word yet as to the possibility of the annual Academy Awards telecast being moved forward.
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Box Office Continues to Surprise Compromise
Director Greta Gerwig's Barbie has topped the charts again this week, and with it making her the first female to direct a billion-dollar film. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer continues to hold steady in the number 2 spot.
Even as Gerwig's live-action comedy continues its global path as a cultural phenomenon, pulling in a larger share of the international market to date than the domestic. However, it isn't all pink and rosy as Barbie is running into cultural trouble as it begins its middle east rollout.
"Kuwait announced its ban late Wednesday, saying the film promotes "ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order," without elaborating, according to a statement published by the state-run KUNA news agency," APnews.com reported. Lebanon followed suit claiming the film contradicted "values of faith and morality" and promoted "homosexuality and sexual transformation."
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Robbie Robertson Dies
Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist for the Band, a southern rock and blues group that dominated the late 1960s and early 1970s, died this week. He was 80.
Robertson, born in Canada seemed to have a unique gift of chronicling his interpretation of American culture through his lyrics. While the majority of songwriters in this season focused on the dynamics of the upheaval in American streets, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights struggles, riots and shootings, the Band, focused on the historic south.
The American music scene became folk intensive during the late 1960s with the rise of Bob Dylan, and the poetic weaving of causes related stories, and anthems, which fit Robertson's style and the two became friends which further cemented the Band's place in the annual of rock and roll history.
The Band and Bob Dylan ended up writing and recording enough sons to fill a double album, which was released in 1975 called "The Basement Tapes," which "became a Top 10 hit and inspired the New York Times critic John Rockwell to call it "one of the greatest albums in the history of American popular music," The New York Times reported.
The American music scene, began to radically change throughout the 1970s and by 1976 the Band announced they were retiring and held their final concert, billed as "The Last Waltz," which turned into a "an all-star affair," with memorable performances from Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr, John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Water, Ronnie Wood and Neil Young.
Academy Award director Martin Scorsese filmed the concert, which aired on HBO in 1978, and continued to fuel the folk music scene and according to Wikipedia "Rolling Stone called it the "Greatest Concert Movie of All Time."
Robertson is survived by his wife, Janet, three children and several grandchildren. No further information is available.
